The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the approval Tuesday of $2.5 billion in private activity bonds allocated toward the Brightline West high-speed rail project connecting Southern California to Las Vegas.
The new funding follows an award of $1 billion in private activity bonds to Brightline West in 2020 and a $3 billion federal grant announced in December.
“High-speed rail in America is now beginning to take off,” said Andy Kunz, CEO of U.S. High-Speed Rail. “This latest funding will give a major boost in confidence, not only for Brightline West but for bullet train projects in the Western U.S. and across the country.”
The 218-mile high-speed rail line will primarily run along the 15 Freeway with trains capable of reaching 186 mph or more, the U.S. Department of Transportation stated.
Train riders will cut two hours off the time it would take to travel by car, arriving at their location in half the time.
The $12 billion project is expected to be fully electric and produce zero emissions “to become one of the greenest forms of transportation in the U.S.,” the DOT stated.
Officials from the City of Rancho Cucamonga, Metrolink, Omnitrans and others gathered at the Cucamonga Station, the southernmost terminus for the train, following the announcement of the $3 billion grant in December.
“This will support an estimated 11,000 jobs for construction of the high-speed rail line,” Rancho Cucamonga Assistant City Manager Elisa Cox said. “This is just a piece of the much larger collaborative effort to make the Inland Empire a global connection point.”
Brightline successfully launched a high-speed rail service on the East Coast earlier last year, connecting Orlando to Miami, Florida.